Your local guide in Budapest will be Miklos Mayer, founder of Hungary Photo Tours, who’s been organizing night photo tours for 5+ years.
Please note that schedule may be changed due to weather / traffic.
Day 1 / 12th October, Tuesday
Sunrise: 6:58 AM / Sunset: 6:02 PM
Night photography tour in Budapest, visiting the best vantage points of Buda.
Recommended lenses: 24-70 mm, 70-200 mm. Extra wide angles won’t really be needed
5:15 PM – Pick up at hotel by van (exact timing may depend on the location of hotel)
5:45 PM – Arriving to Citadel.
After a short walk, we’ll find the best view of Budapest. We’ll set up our tripods, and Miklos is going to briefly show the highlights and will also help in setting up the cameras for long exposures.
We’ll stay here until the lights are turned up, and then start shooting in the Blue Hour.
Around 7 PM – we walk again a bit, and go to the Liberty Statue, from where there’s a beautiful view on the Elisabeth Bridge
After finishing at the Liberty Statue, we walk back to the van, which will take us up to the Buda Castle.
8:00 PM – Shooting from Buda Castle
From here, there’s a magnificent view on the Chain Bridge, and the Hungarian Parliament.
After finishing here, we walk down from the Castle, and take some lighttrail shots of the Chain Bridge:
9 PM: The van takes the group back to the accommodation
Day 2 / 13th October, Wednesday
Sunrise: 7:00 AM / Sunset: 9:00 PM
We’ll take a full day tour in Budapest, and at night we visit some of the remaining locations
8:30 AM Pickup at the hotel
We’ll start at the Fishermens Bastions, where there are lots of opportunities for playing with compositions.
A wide angle lens is recommended here.
We’ll also go inside of the Mathias Church.
If the group wants to, we can climb up to the top of the tower
Around 2-3 PM Lunch at a very good hungarian market, followed by some sweets
After lunch, we’ll be photographing downtown Pest:
St Stephens Cathedral
The St Stephen’s Basilica is the biggest church of Budapest, with an astonishing inside, and a very high circular balcony on the top.
Heroes Square
Vajdahunyad Castle
As the sun goes down, we go for another night photography tour.
This time, we’ll shoot the Parliament from the opposite side with the reflection in the Danube.
We also shoot the Liberty Bridge with some great lighttrails from the numerous trams:
We would also shoot the Chain Bridge again, but this time from the Pest side:
And we’ll probably end by capturing the Heroes Square in the night.
Day 3 / 14th October, Thursday
Sunrise: 7:01 AM / Sunset: 5:58 PM
This day we’ll get out of Budapest, and we’ll explore the cities of the Danube Bend.
We’ll visit Szentendre first, a small city on the shore of the Danube, with a charming atmosphere.
Then we’ll head off to Visegrád, which is known for its Castle overlooking the Danube Bend.
Then we head off to Esztergom, a city on the Danube which has the biggest cathedral in Hungary.
After finishing in Esztergom, the van takes back the group to Budapest.